Alec Bashinsky joins boutique management consultancy Blackhall & Pearl

Alec Bashinsky has joined boutique management consultancy firm Blackhall & Pearl Talent Services as a managing partner.

After a 14-year stint with Big Four accounting and consulting firm Deloitte as a partner and head of people & performance, Alec Bashinsky has joined Blackhall & Pearl. The move comes as the firm implements a new suite of offerings in the recruitment and HR sector which combine innovation with data analysis.  

Bashinsky will lead the newly founded Organisational Network Analysis team. Organisational network analysis is a structured way to manage personal communications, information, networking and decision making through a formal system. The concept is being implemented by consulting firms globally to help companies position employees where they can have the most impact.

The consulting firms’ talent services are focused on providing boards, chief executives and chief HR officers the ways to measure the culture of their organisation. Driving company culture has long become the golden egg for executives in the corporate world to ensure the success of their company.

Blackhall & Pearl understand this motivation and have tapped into a market which will become increasingly important in the future as company culture radiates through every interaction which clients (present and potential) and influences talented prospective candidates.

This can be seen across the consulting world with increasingly apparent campaigns by Deloitte and Accenture to promote their company culture as being attractive to the next generation of graduates and leaders.

By using tools like AI insights and tools like organisational network analysis, among other more traditional talent services including HR transformation, future of work, and the talent experience, as well as promoting diversity and inclusion, Blackhall & Pearl can map and predict power networks within an organisation. 

In doing so, they can understand how a network of employees interact and how they divide themselves into informal teams to create a positive work flow outcome. By understanding these natural phenomenons, executives can influence and interact with their staff in a positive manner and also manage high-risk areas more efficiently.

The firms’ AI model states that “organisations are drowning in information while starving for wisdom - we intelligently mine and analyse existing data sets and unlock their true knowledge potential.”  

This is done through analysing an organisation’s social network structure as well as accumulated data to provide a comprehensive and personal element compared to other AI analysis. The end goal of the firm’s AI risk management service is to accurately diagnose workplace productivity, engagement, innovation, misconduct and compliance.  

“The Organisational Network Analysis tool reveals the invisible organisational networks that have the most influence on culture and conduct,” said Bashinsky. “It's like an organisational X-ray. Formal organisational structure reflects authority, accountability, budgeting, policies etc. However, the organisational network structure is how everyday work is actually performed. This has the main influence on local behaviour.”

Due to strict regulation over the retirement age at consulting firms in Australia – e.g. Deloitte’s retirement age for partners is 62 – Bashinsky left the firm as a partner last year. However due, he expressed that he wanted to continue working in the rapidly evolving tech space. “I'm 63 years of age and decided I have still lots more to achieve in the innovative/digital HR space which is my global area of expertise,” Bashinsky said.